Partner said he wishes I were more curious about the world

[Bzzzzzzz]

I am educated to Master's level, have lived in a couple of different countries and speak other Languages so I did think I was curious to some level at least. I read the news daily.
My partner doesn't have the qualifications and has mostly worked in 'menial' roles but he certainly reads a lot, has a lot of general knowledge and knows a lot about music.
I'd say I read more non fiction, I do occasionally read fiction but sometimes feel a bit embarrassed that I should have read a lot of the famous novels that I haven't.

Anyway I can occasionally be ditzy.
I was chatting to him yesterday and I said something about the topic of indigenous people. Looking back it was clumsily worded really, but I know what I meant.
He reacted as if I'd asked him to spell my own name. He said, "Omg seriously!!" "Like come on!!" "How on earth can you not know that!!" "What the hell!"
He was clearly annoyed, and I told him that I didn't think it had warranted such an angry reaction, I hadn't said anything controversial or offensive.
Later on we got into a discussion about it and I asked him if he'd have reacted like that if someone else had said it, i.e. a colleague or family member. I couldn't imagine him doing so. He said, "No, as I don't think they'd say something like that." He then calmly explained the mistake I'd made about indigenous people and I told him that's all that had been required.

His elderly aunt said she couldn't picture where NYC was on a map and he didn't say anything to her, but told me later on that he was frustrated at her 'lack of knowledge and curiosity."

Anyway during our discussion he did apologise for overreacting and then told me that I'm great but he "wishes I had more curiosity about the world."

I told him that I understood but I suppose now I'm second guessing. I like to travel, I watch a lot of travel documentaries, I'm interested in current affairs and happy to try new things. It's not the same as saying " You're great but I wish you did the dishes more." For instance.
Just interested to see what others think. I don't want someone to feel intellectually superior to me, though I'm probably just being too sensitive. Not sure what to do.

This. I would say he has a chip on his shoulder about failing his degree, and he spends much of his day 'proving' how clever he is at the expense of others. I had an XH who didn't have a degree. I did. He would have been perfectly capable of getting one, just didn't go that route. However he couldn't adjust to the idea that I had one. One of many issues he had, but it caused a lot of problems. Don't tolerate it as long as I did.

In todays episode of an insecure man who knows his partner is far more intelligent than him - we have post from OP.

Exactly.

What did you actually say, @Bzzzzzzz ?

Even if he was ‘calling it out’ ( if there was anything to call out at all) he was clearly doing it in a dickish way, that is clearly outlined in the OP.
I was at a ‘do’ once when a guy who clearly came from a working class background said ‘ shall we go for a chinky?’ The organizer very politely and calmly stated that ‘chinky’ ’ was considered a racist term. He looked astonished and said, ‘Is it?’ But then changed his language. He wasn’t deliberately being a dick.

OPs partner, however, clearly was. And it’s clearly a pattern of deriding her for not knowing things he does. Attempts to reframe this man as an anti-racism warrior are frankly laughable.

The biggest red flag for any relationship I have decided is making a post on an online forum to ask advice about a situation.

I'm not trying to cast him as an 'anti-racism warrior', just that his response may not been as dickish as the OP is suggesting.

And I don't think we're under an obligation to respond politely to racist comments (if that's what happened - the OP won't tell us).

And someone who uses the expression 'Chinky' is a fucking dickhead. We've all got a responsibility to have a basic understanding of the words we use, and the effect they may have. Particularly when they are slang expressions for races and nationalities ffs.

He sounds like a patronising Twat with the benefit of both a superiority complex and an issue with you being more educated than he is.

tosser.

Heh heh, yet another 'I'll admit I said/did something, but I'm not going into specifics, anyway, here's all the gory detail on my partner's reaction, was he being a dick?' - type thread.

Yeah, maybe his reaction was way over the top, maybe it wasn't - how is anyone supposed to know unless the whole scenario is explained? In a case like this I'm inclined to think along the lines of: OP said something that implied she thought Africa was one country, and her partner is black.

Hahahaha

This is also the vibe I'm getting

Because its completely relevant to the point! Obviously.

Sounds like he's defensive about the disparity and needs to prove how clever he really is. Or so he thinks

No menial is a descriptive word with a defined meaning. And yes, they are both menial.

I imagine OP didn't reveal the details of what she said because she knew the virtue signallers on here would want to take her apart for any sign of witchcraft, I mean sin, er no, "racism". Strategy backfired, because the virtue signaller wokists on here are always ready and looking for any excuse to start a pile on purity spiral.

OP, he's insecure and a dick. LTB.

Maybe he has a chip on his shoulder? Maybe he likes to 'prove' he is actually more intelligent than you by bringing you down?

Yes, we really don't have any information to go on as to who was in the right here.

I'd also point out that having an MA and living abroad do not mean someone is curious about the world. I've met tons of people who've done both who are still profoundly incurious - yes they have knowledge about their subject but how much do they want to learn about other things? Yes they've observed different cultures from the privileged vantage point of being a tourist but how much do they actually listen to others' perspectives? A lot of comfortably middle-class people I know have no interest in seeing the world through other people's eyes.

However I would say to OP's partner - if curiosity about the world is important to you, and you feel your girlfriend doesn't have it, why are you with her? It's not something you can change, seems like an incompatibility.

To emphasise that she is more highly educated than the negging partner.

I agree with this. His reaction was OTT.

So he can’t win can he? If OP truly said something innocent and inoffensive, he’s a dick. If OP said something racist and/or offensive, he’s still a dick because he pulled her up on it impolitely.

And your assertion that it’s a pattern could equally be proof he’s always a dick or that the OP is a racist.

Again, we know what he said, but what OP refuses to tell us is what she said and at this point even if she posted something, I’d have a hard time believing her as she obviously posted this with the express objective of getting LTBs and her own ego stroked. Which posters are falling over themselves to do without full possession of even the basic facts of the situation. So now she’s vested in keeping that positive SM feedback high going.

Is he maybe suggesting that you don't have a lot of common sense or not very street wise?

I used to have a boyfriend like this. Similar situation - I was at university and he had rubbish a-levels and didn't go (the system was rigged against him somehow). I didn't care, but he had a massive chip on his shoulder and loved to tell me that for a supposedly intelligent person I could be really stupid.

I now have a DH who doesn't expect me to know everything he knows, or vice versa. We both respect each other for who we are.

I wouldn't want to have a partner who wished I were different.
How long have you been seeing each other?

So he can’t win can he? If OP truly said something innocent and inoffensive, he’s a dick. If OP said something racist and/or offensive, he’s still a dick because he pulled her up on it impolitely.

Well he can win. He can pull her up on it politely.

It sounds like you are very understanding about his issues, eg failing to complete his degree, working in menial jobs ( why is he not stretching himself btw) but he is not showing a similar level of empathy to your knowledge gaps.
He sounds rude and also over compensating for his own deficiencies.
He can't even find the words to explain what he means more clearly, he's hardly in a position to criticise you!
I might add that my DH didn't complete his degree and is very clever and knows s lot about things like geography that I do not. I am better educated, wider read and more travelled. Neither of us would dream of being rude about the others lack of knowledge in specific areas.
But if he was insulting about my knowledge gaps I would immediately respond in kind. Don't accept being patronised by him!

I go out of my way to be impolite to racists. I think it's entirely appropriate. They need to know that their opinions are scummy. I owe them nothing.

If I was in a relationship with a racist, I would LTB.

Of course, we've no way of knowing whether the OP's husband's reaction was OTT, because she won't tell us what she said.

So we are supposed to be polite and nice when reacting to overt racism?

That’s called tone policing which per dictionary.com is a conversational tactic that dismisses the ideas being communicated when they are perceived to be delivered in an angry, frustrated, sad, fearful, or otherwise emotionally charged manner.

In essence, this means that tone policing is a strategy some people may employ when debating others, especially online.

It calls out the tone of the message, especially if it conveys strong emotions, rather than the logic of the argument. It’s a classic logical fallacy that uses an ad hominem—an attack on the person making the argument, rather than the argument itself.

So not pulling someone up on an offensive/racist statement “politely” is “being a dick”.